How Can Belly Dance and Yoga actually help me?

• improve core balance and coordination 
• provides a good cardiovascular workout 
• increase both flexibility and strength 
• enhance your physical appearance 
• increased blood circulation 
• An hour of belly dancing can burn as much as four hundred calories. 
• enhances the posture 
• tones, strengthens and tightens the arms, the abs, obliques, legs and back 
• increases your physical awareness, core balance and coordination 
• reduces the risk of osteoporosis 
• builds cardiovascular strength 
• increases metabolism. 
• strengthens the abdominal and pelvic region 
• eases menstruation and menopause discomforts 
• burns as many calories as jogging, swimming or riding a bike. 

Belly Dance  Benefits: 
Belly Dance has tremendous, continuous effect in the quality of relaxation, breathing & rhythm, which increases body awareness & sensitivity & contributes to a heightened sense of well-being & self-esteem. And it’s a great way to slim down and tone your entire body. Belly dance is suitable for all ages and body types. The benefits of belly dance are both mental and physical. 
Discover the beauty and power of your body and receive the physical and emotional benefits that arise from belly dance. Practicing the dance tones the muscles, gives a great work out, enhances the posture, strengthens the lower back, and mobilizes the abdominal and pelvic regions. Regular belly dancing of about sixty minutes not only strengthens trapezius and abdominal muscles but also strengthens the heart and increases circulation. Belly dancing also relieves menstrual problems and has been shown to be very useful during pregnancy and childbirth. Belly dancing has enabled women to overcome self-esteem issues and increased their libido. The best part of Belly Dance is that it challenges you to use your body in a controlled and elegant way. It is a sensual , powerful dance that make you feel feminine as your getting fit!

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Can I Belly Dance if I am pregnant? YES! 

YES! Belly dance was the first form of lamaze . It is a great form of pre and post labor therapy. The internal movements help to get in touch with muscles of the pelvic region. The pelvic area is the source of strength and storage of energy. For many women this area stores a lot of emotion. Stimulating the pelvic area with belly dance movements allows for the vital area at the base of the spine to open, freeing the flow of energy and releasing trapped emotions. Woman who have belly danced through their pregnancy find labor (and the entire birthing process) to be much less painful. 

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SPIRITUAL CONNECTION: 

Belly dance is a great way to explore an ancient and spiritual journey. The dance evokes creativity, which within its self is deeply spiritual. Belly dancing is a powerful form of artistic expression. Learning this ancient art form will uplift the spirit, inspire confidence, create physical and universal awareness, and enhance self-knowledge. Through the movements you will also gain cultural, historical, and social content of the dances and learn the relationship between the movement and music. The dance will fill you with an inspiration to celebrate life. It strengthens bonds between community and expresses joy, pleasure and praises life. Instantly dancers will begin to embody the internal changes that come with this feminine dance and they will find deeper meanings to life and deeper connections to themselves. This dance nourishes the body and the soul. With any continuous study of movement (be it yoga, tai chi or dance) you will find a connection between movement and emotion. Connection with spirituality is not something you have to seek out. It's an everyday thing experienced within the dance of life. 

Osho, an enlightened mystic from India, wrote about dance: “Existence to me is a carnival, it is just a festival. It is for those who know how to dance. And the dance need not wait for tomorrow – tomorrow never comes - the dance has to be now, here, this very moment. This very silence has to become the dance! “ 

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TIPS 

• At first all the moves will feel very strange and foreign . As you continue to relax into the posture and the feeling of the dance it will bring out a sensuality and gracefulness you never knew existed within you. Just know that everyone goes through that uncomfortable stiffness at first. 
•Tuck your tail bone under: This is the first and most important aspect of successfully learning Middle Eastern Dance. Bellydance uses the low back for support and the hips as the center of gravity. A spine straightened through the lumbar and sacral vertebrae creates a pleasing line and protects your lower back from injury. 
• Always keep a slight bend in your knees. 
• Open you heart to the world. 
• Let the music guide and inspire you. 
•Have fun with it and let your personality shine. 

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CAN I JOIN CLASSES IF I AM A MAN? YES! 

Male belly dancing is hardly a new phenomenon in Turkey. Most male dancers date the practice back to the Sultan's court in the final centuries of the Ottoman Empire, when women were largely prohibited from performing onstage. Much as how boys would play women’s parts in Elizabethan Shakespeare, young men – generally ethnic Greeks, Armenians, or Romani, drawn, often unwillingly, from the Empire's non-Muslim population – would be trained as dancers, adopt androgynous or feminine attire and makeup, and – in many cases – moonlight as paid courtesans to noblemen. 

Male delly dancing (and the watching thereof) was considered part of “mainstream” masculine culture. “[In the East, zenne dancing] would not happen in a restaurant, would not happen in a wedding. It would happen in a closed house, [with] ten, 12 men sitting around drinking and [watching] a male dancer. Participating in traditional Eastern dance was something done by men and women alike. We all belly dance at some point – even straight men.” - filmmaker Mehmet Binay, 2012 feature Zenne Dancer explores Istanbul male dancers.